Joseph-Anna-Marie de Moyriac de Mailla

Joseph-Anna-Marie de Moyria de Mailla (also de Moyriac) (zh-tp|t=馮秉正|p=Feng Bingzheng [ [http://archives.catholic.org.hk/books/author/fung.htm ¶¾ ªÃ ¥¿ ] ] ) (b. 16 December1669, at Château Maillac on the Isère; d. 28 June1748, at Beijing, China) was a French Jesuit missionary to China.

Life

After finishing his studies he joined the Society of Jesus in 1686, and in 1701 was sent on the mission to China as a member of the order. In June, 1703, he arrived in Morocco and thence set out for Canton, where he acquired a thorough knowledge of the Chinese language and writing.

He devoted himself particularly to the study of Chinese historical works. When the Kangxi Emperor entrusted the Jesuit missionaries with the cartographical survey of his empire, the provinces of Henan, Zhejiang, and Fujian, and the Island of Formosa, fell to the lot of Mailla along with Jean-Baptiste Régis and Roman Hinderer. As a mark of his satisfaction, the emperor, when the work had been completed, conferred on Father Mailla the rank of mandarin.

When he died, in his seventy-ninth year, he was buried at the expense of the Qianlong Emperor, many people being present at the obsequies.

Works

When he was fifty years old he began the study of the Manchu language, and made such progress that he was able to translate into French the "Thoung-kian-kang-mou" (zh-tsp|t=通鑒綱目|s=通鉴纲目|p=Tongjian Gangmu) [ [http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Historiography/tongjiangangmu.html Chinese Literature: Tongjian gangmu 通鑑綱目] ] , Zhu Xi's extract from the great Chinese annals, [Yves Camus, [http://www.riccimac.org/doc/JesuitsJourneys.pdf "Jesuits’ Journeys in Chinese Studies"] ] ["An Historical and Descriptive Account of China: Its Ancient and Modern ...", by Hugh Murray, John Crawfurd, Peter Gordon. 1843. Page 37. [http://books.google.com/books?id=FSQLAAAAYAAJ On Google Books] ] which on the orders of Emperor Kangxi had been translated into the Manchu language. He finished the translation in several volumes in the year 1730, and in 1737 sent it to France, where it lay for thirty years in the library of the college at Lyon, Ferret, who purposed publishing it, having died.

On the suppression of the order the college authorities gave the manuscript to the Abbé Grosier on condition that he would see to the publication of the work. Not long after, the work appeared under the title: "Histoire générale de la Chine, ou Annales de cet Empire; traduit du Tong-kien-kang-mou par de Mailla, Paris, 1777-1783" [Mailla's spelling, Tong-kien-kang-mou, is given by numerous sources, e.g. Alfred Owen Aldridge, "The Dragon and the Eagle: The Presence of China in the American Enlightenment", Wayne State University Press, 1993, ISBN 081432455X ( [Partial view on Google Books http://books.google.com/books?id=3rTYPFz50ZMC] ) , page 18. The 1907 Catholic Encyclopedia misspells it as "Tong-kiere-kang-mou" (sic).] , in 12 volumes, with maps and plans. In 1785 a thirteenth volume followed. Besides Grosier, the Orientalists Deshauterayes and Colson were mainly responsible for the publication.

Mailla is also the first European scholar to whom we owe a detained knowledge of the "Shujing", the classic historical work of the Chinese, most of its books being included in his translation. Mailla, also, in order to promote the work of the mission, compiled some edifying books in Chinese; the most important being lives of the saints, and meditations on the Gospels of the Sundays throughout the whole year.

In "Lettres édifiantes" there are some letters from him on the persecution of the Christians which took place in China during his time.

References

*"Lettres edifiantes", Series XXVII (Paris, 1758), lix-lxx;
*"Biographie universelle", XXVI, 120;
*Richthofen, "China" (1877);
*De Backer-Sommervogel, V, (1894), 330-34